Regularly take the Primera to 500 below redline (so about 6250 or so).
250K miles and counting, no oil leaks.
Can't see that it does any harm to a well-sorted engine.
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Modern cars all heave rev limter in ECU software. Hard to overrev unless going downhill and motoring the engine over the red line.
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I often see over 7K on my old Pride (no rev limiter, first gear, across grass). There's no power there, but it's quicker than changing up and then back down, quickly.
I used to worry about it, but I've done it so often I'm becoming quite blase about it.
Next week - where can I find a new engine for my Kia Pride?
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F1 engine rev limit is 19k rpm or something.... Most high performance bike engines rev to well over 10k rpm. It gets a bit difficult to get the valves to close fast enough as the revs rise - but it can be done. F1 engines not exactly known for their longevity though, and a bike engine in a normal car would be a 'mare due to lack of torque to get it rolling. Diesel engines are limited by the speed at which the diesel burns, and the fact that you don't get the cooling effect from vaporising the fuel - which is why the limit is always around 5k rpm. I wonder what the rev limit is on the diesel engined Le Mans cars??
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I sometimes go up to a heady 4,000 rpm. Turbo diesels, don't ya just love 'em! :-)
JH
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Most high performance bike engines rev to well over 10k rpm. It gets a bit difficult to get the valves to close fast enough as the revs rise - but it can be done.
"Desmodromic" valve operation used to be aimed in that general direction.
I had a small racing motorcycle years ago, which was a two-stroke. The rev. counter started at 5,000RPM, and ended at 20,000. ISTR peak power was at 17,500. The thing wouldn't idle, and could be heard two miles away.
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Back in about '65 a mate had an ex-works racing Itom 50cc in road legal trim.
I can hear it now. ;>)
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L,
"1965 Singer Chamois" - snap. I had one of them too! C reg, so even 1965 too. It didn't have a rev counter (just an oil pressure gauge to pass on the bad news) so your tachometer must have been after market?
In those days only the GT models had tachometers, with GT meaning "Gotta Tachometer".
JH
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Fiat 127's would happily rev right up to 7,500rpm according to technical spec's for the car.
It did not have a rev gauge though so I can not verify for sure.
It certainly sounded like I was revving the life out of it.
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You're right about the 127 diddy. We had a late 1960s Fiat Coupe with the 903cc engine. That had a rev counter and was taken to 7000rpm+ most days with a lovely wail. Really interesting car like a mini Alfa.... rusted away of course!
storm.oldcarmanualproject.com/fiat850sportcoupe.htm
Entertaining handling with the rear engine... in 35yrs and 60+ cars it was one of only two I've ever spun.
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was it the fiat arbarth thingy , that the engine would rev to 9k , but the bearings wer only good for 7k?
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''I sometimes go up to a heady 4,000 rpm. Turbo diesels, don't ya just love 'em! :-)''
You'll be needing a hearing test in my estimation! My VAG PD sounds like nasty things will happen. Anyway, once I get to those revs it's normally accompanied by me doing an involuntary childlike rocking forwards motion, in a rather futile attempt to get more acceleration. Changing up....
Note to self....buy a petrol one next time!!
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w, so's mine :-) It's a PD130 and it shifts if you ask it to. The joy to me though, is the easy,relaxed acceleration without piling on the revs or dropping a gear. Wonderful things torques :-)
JH
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"1965 Singer Chamois" - snap. I had one of them too! .......... It didn't have a rev counter ........ so your tachometer must have been after market?
It didn't have a tachometer, but I knew the mph/1000 RPM figures for each gear, so I could tell from the speedometer what the engine speed was.
Edited by L'escargot on 05/02/2010 at 13:59
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QUOTE:....""I wonder what the rev limit is on the diesel engined Le Mans cars??""
I think it was 6000 or 6500 rpm, which is about that absolute maximum a diesel engine can rev because of the expansion rate of the gases in the cylinder after the fuel is injected and ignites. Presumably if a different fuel was used in a compression-ignition engine, it might be capable of revving higher.
Personally I prefer low-revving undramatic diesel engines for ordinary everyday road use.
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Personally I prefer low-revving undramatic diesel engines for ordinary everyday road use.
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Me too, it must be a real pain having to rev an engine within a few revs of destruction to make any progress.
Edited by Old Navy on 05/02/2010 at 15:05
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I love it really - its the 140 and now I fancy teh Octavia vRS 170 CR. In truth, I rarely stray over 3k, no need, and it's averaging 49.6. I certainly couldn't live with a petrol now, but I have had that occasional comedy moment of leaning forward; as if it's going to make one iota of difference!
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merc sprinter turbo diesel 130
m65 m6 m5 every morning at 05.00 holding ( when no cameras/contraflows) 3800 rpm
= progress
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I know what you mean, I drive both an Octavia tdi and a Fiat Panda plus ride a Hornet 900. The diesel is unbeatable in an undramatic, workaday manner, but can't compare to the Panda for fun/feedback and is slower off the mark too. And there's nothing to beat the thrill of winding up a highly tuned petrol bike engine to its sky high rev limit!
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Knee down hopefully Bazza! Firestorm me, grunt and pace.
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Fiat 124 sport.
6,000 rpm and a lovely noise.
Lotus Elan S3 1967 tuned to 135bhp.. 6500 rpm and the noise was deafening...
Honda S800 on a test drive .. 8,000 rpm: slight misfire so I did not buy it:-(
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>>> Personally I prefer low-revving undramatic diesel engines for ordinary everyday road use.
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Me too, it must be a real pain having to rev an engine within a few revs of destruction to make any progress.<
Not really. And you don't have to row up and down the gearbox all the time because it keeps running out of puff when you need to get a move on.
I think too many people on here have spent so long with oilers designed to impress the taxman and the company bean counters rather than the driver that they've forgotten what a properly designed petrol engine is actually like.
Signed:
Honda 2.2 Vtec - rev limiter cuts in at smooth 8,300.
Jaguar 6 litre V12 - 8,000-plus, they say.
So there... ;-P
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I am helplessly enamoured of virtually all motor vehicles, but I agree with Mike Hannon here. Snarling, wailing, growling or going blatblatblat like a heavily tweaked old sidevalve V8, petrol engines nearly always make a better noise than diesels, and of course they produce more power too. Low down grunt and grumble are all very well, but they don't stir the soul.
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I recall the old Honda S800 could rev. up to around 8000+ from a little 800cc quad carbed motor.
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I've got a 1600cc Honda vtec, tuned to produce 185bhp. It's running stock internals and is pulled to the limiter as a matter of course. The rev limit has been increased from 8.3k to 8.5k which is the limit of the stock valve train. It's done 100k miles and runs as sweet as a nut.
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I've got BMW's 1995cc petrol circa 2006 in my motor. I challenge anyone bar Honda to produce an engine that spins as sweetly or smoothly to its 6500rpm red line as this does.
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I regularly take my VVC MG TF to the 7250 rpm red line. The nature of the engine is similar to a vtec so doesnt come alive until 4000rpm and from then surges to the limiter. I have stretched its legs in Germany to 7250 in every gear (well 250revs short in 5th!). Even with the 'perceived weak k series' it has never done it any harm.
I do tend to take my Audi A4 diesel to 4000ish every so often to clear the cobwebs out of the exhaust but the nature of the engine means its not really delivering anything about 3,500. The Audi is on 170,000 now so regular trips to max speed havent done any harm!
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Try my Mazda Xedos 9 Miller supercharged 2.3 - 6.5k revs sweet as a nut and silent and 80mph in second - smoothest revving V6 engine I have ever had.
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Shall I start a "Mines bigger / faster / revs more than yours" thread?
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